This document will help you take your site live, once you have built your site in trial mode, you're happy with it and want to add a domain name to it.
Step 1. Obtain a domain name
If you have an existing domain, move to step 2.
If you don't have a domain name you have to purchase it from a domain name registrar. Business Catalyst does not sell domain names. Some popular registrars are GoDaddy, NetRegistry, list of top 10 in US. Google for more.
Step 2. Upgrading a site
To add a domain name to a site, you will need to upgrade it first. You can read this detailed tutorial or follow the steps listed below.
If you're a partner you can do this through Partner Portal > Clients tab. Click on the site you wish to upgrade, click Upgrade Site button and go throuhg the upgrade process.
If you're a business owner you will either need to contact your partner to go through the above steps or you'll need to click the green Upgrade button in the top righ corner of your site's admin console and go through the upgrade process.
Step 3. Pointing/redelgating your domain to your trial site on Business Catalyst
Now that you have a domain name and your site is upgraded you need to point that domain to your trial site on Business Catalyst. You have two options in this case:
1. Redelegate domain to BC's DNS servers
If you choose this option, you are basically giving DNS management to BC's DNS servers. You must use this option if you with to use BC's mail hosting.
Redelagation involves changing DNS server addresses at your registrar to BC's DNS server addresses. When you log in to DNS management tool on the registrar's website you will find a section which allows you to specify DNS servers. This is where you need to enter the following DNS server addrress:
ns1.worldsecuresystems.com (192.150.2.143) - primary DNS server
ns2.worldsecuresystems.com (192.150.8.143) - secondary DNS server
ns3.worldsecuresystems.com (202.176.14.140)
The IP addresses are optional. Som registrars require them and some don't. If the registrar doesn't have the fields for them then you don't need to supply them.
Here is an example of where you would change DNS servers in GoDaddy's control panel.
If you're not sure who your registar is you can obtain this information with "whois" utility. http://whois.domaintools.com/ is a free online whois service you can use.
2. Host your domain with external DNS provider and point A-records to your BC site
If you choose this option you will not be able to host mail on Business Catalyst. In this case your DNS will be managed by an external DNS provider and all you'll have to do is to create A-records that point to Business Catalyst IP address. BC has three IP addresses for 3 data centre. You will have to know which data centre your site is hosted on before you can create an A-record.
The following are the IP addresses for BC data centers:
202.176.14.137 for sites on the Australia data center
192.150.2.140 for sites on the United States data center
192.150.8.140 for sites on the European Union data center
Make sure that you don't forget www subdomain. You will usually have to create 2 A-records, one for your domain and for the www version of your domain. You can also create a CNAME between www and non-www URLs.
Step 4. Adding a domain to your site
So, now that your site is upgraded, you have obtained the domain name and pointed or redelegated it to Business Catalyst, you will have to add it to your site to tie in the trial site you've built with that domain name.
Below you'll find two sets of instructions since Business Catalyst has two interfaces:
V2 interface (legacy admin console)
Log in to Admin and go to Admin > Manage Domain Name. Click on Add a new domain name and fill in the form. Important thing to rememer is that if you have redelegated your domain in the previous step you have to choose "I will re-delegate my domain and use this service to host it." option. Otherwise, make sure you choose "I will be using an external DNS server".
V3 interface (new admin console)
Log in to admin console of your website by appending /adminconsole to the staging/trial URL and go to Site Settings -> Site Domains. Here you need to click on the New Domain button and the Add New Domain modal should pop-up. Fill in the form and make sure you choose the right option. If you have redelegated your domain in the previous step you have to choose "I will re-delegate my domain and use this service to host it." option. Otherwise, make sure you choose "I will be using an external DNS server"
See this tutorial for detailed instructions.
Some commonly asked questions and troubleshooting techniques
Q. I have a domain name and need to redelegate it, but I'm not sure who my registrar is
A. Yo can use whois service to find that information. A good tool can be found at http://whois.domaintools.com/
Simply enter your domain name in the box provided and click "lookup". You should see some domain related information, including the registrar name. If you can't see the registar there you will need dig through your old emails.
Q. When I go to my site i get "This webpage is not available" message
A. You need to make sure that your domain hasn't expired. Go to http://whois.domaintools.com/ and lookup you domain. You should see the expiry date in the information that tool returns. Make sure that the expiry dateis some date in future.
Q. How can I check if my domain has expired?
A. See the answer above
Q. How can I very that my domain has been properly redelegated?
A. There are lots of ways to do this. You can use utilities that come on your computer (nslookup for Windows and dig for Mac and Unix based systems) or you can use an online tools such as http://www.dnswatch.info/ and http://whois.domaintools.com/
If you're using http://www.dnswatch.info/ simply enter the domain name inside Hostname or IP box and click on Resolve. You should see something like this:
